Celebrating NT’s unique Greek history

By Leanne Miles

Stories of Greek pioneers and settlement in the Northern Territory and Australia, including the important relationships formed with Indigenous people, will be told as part of a cultural event at Charles Darwin University.

Hellenic Cultural Week will begin on 29 May, the date of the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which is an important date for the Greek community around the world.

Coordinator of Hellenic and Greek Studies Associate Professor George Frazis said the week would include several public events featuring academics from around Australia presenting research and stories about what shaped the course of history for Hellenes in Australia and the NT.

“There are three significant years that were the impetus for the Hellenic diaspora, or migration of Greeks from their homeland, starting with the fall of Constantinople in 1453, and continuing during the 1900s,” Dr Frazis said.

Dr Frazis has been researching the pioneers of the Greek community in the NT and will present his paper on the life of the influential Greek migrant Lambros Gougos.

“Leaving his native Greece (Kastoria) and his family just before the onset of the war, Gougos arrived in Australia and by 1942 had made his way to Darwin to start a new life,” he said.

“The Second World War and the civil war in Greece that followed saw Gougos’ family dislocated and scattered, most were never to see him again.”

Dr Frazis said the week of events would culminate in the first of several international conferences to be held on the Hellenic diaspora in Darwin and Greece.

“The first day of the first international conference will be held in Darwin on Saturday, 3 June; the second will be held in Rhodes-Greece on 28 June; and the third will be held in Thessaloniki-Greece on 14 July.

“We have academics from CDU, Charles Sturt University, La Trobe University and Curtin University who will speak on the theme ‘Perspectives on the Hellenic Diaspora: Hellenes in Australia, Hellenic Presence in North Australia’.”

Hellenic Cultural Week will run from Monday, 29 May to Saturday, 3 June at CDU Casuarina campus. For more information contact George Frazis on T: 8946 6486 or E: george.frazis@cdu.edu.au.